UPDATE [February 2, 2018 @ 6:30PM ET]

“I am going to recuse myself. I’m dropping out of the race,” Saari said. “On the news, my explanation was clear that this has nothing to do with Nassar, this has everything to do with the judge because she left open the possibility of appeal. It would cost taxpayers’ more money because of her, the judge’s, ineptness. It was never to protect Nassar. The sentencing was proper.”

He added:

“I don’t want chaos in my community. I don’t want hatred in my community. I care enough about my community to step back,” Saari said. “I know these people in this community. They are in tears,” he added, saying that area Chaldeans had been especially supportive of his candidacy, and were hurt by attacks on his character. “I was almost a shoe-in,” he added.

ORIGINAL STORY:

While the trial and sentencing of Larry Nassar is national news, reaction from one conservative state senatorial candidate is just now making waves. Michigan senatorial candidate Michael Saari responded on Facebook to the sentencing portion of Nassar’s trial by lashing out at the judge for offering an opinion on Nassar’s sexual abuse of children calling Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina a “feminazi” and more.

“Judge was wrong for her personal vocal opinions on record… That should be a crime against jursiprudence [sic] itself… Lastly, what do you think this feminazi judge would say if her husband asked for a BJ?”

In another (also deleted) comment from his campaign page (which has either been taken down or made private), he went on to say:

“Woman don’t seem to understand that from the very beginning of time men have taken young girls (Prior to periods) as wives and concubines. Even the bible talks of this so don’t make it sound like men that are attracted to 12 year old girls are sick… It’s you woman that can’t get a grip on reality is whats sick… It’s only normal and you can’t change normal or a persons DNA…”

Screenshots of both comments have been making their way around social media despite his initial attempts to delete and cover up the comments.

“Everything was about her. She could have opened the door for an appeal for Nasser. The reason I made that post was I was angered,” he told ABC 7, adding “If I was to do it all over again, I probably would not have used such derogatory terminology. Yes. Probably not.”

The primary problem with his explanation is that it is within a judge’s purview to offer such commentary once guilt is established in such a case. Judges routinely do this in admonishing criminals for their conduct. Perhaps more egregiously, in his remarks Saari appears to be asking for leniency for a serial child molester while offering Biblical excuses for the convicted man’s crimes.

When he claims – using the Bible as his guide – that a judge shouldn’t “make it sound like men that are attracted to 12 year old girls are sick,” Saari is tacitly endorsing child molestation using Christianity as his reasoning.

And he’s running for office to represent the people of Michigan in their state Senate in the 15th district.

It’s as if conservatives didn’t learn their lesson during the Roy Moore scandal.

Tim Peacock is the Managing Editor and founder of Peacock Panache and has worked as a civil rights advocate for over twenty years. During that time he’s worn several hats including leading on campus LGBT advocacy in the University of Missouri campus system, interning with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and volunteering at advocacy organizations. You can learn more about him at his personal website.